'Two And A Half Men' Crew Will Be Paid

While its war with Two and a Half Menstar Charlie Sheen is raging, Warner Bros. TV just made peace with the show’s crew. Sources confirm that the studio has agreed to pay the about 200 core crew members their full salaries for the four episodes of Men that were scheduled to begin production today. According to TMZ, which broke the news of the payoff, the checks for the crew amount to about $2 million in total. Additionally, the timing of the work stoppage on Men is fortuitous for the crew as it’s pilot season and they could get work on one of the 80+ pilots – broadcast and cable – that will be produced in the next 2 months.

Before production on those 4 episodes was canceled on Thursday after a serious of public verbal assaults on Two a Half Men co-creator Chuck Lorre by Sheen, Sheen had offered to cover one-third of the crew salaries for the 4 episodes that were lost because of the show’s forced hiatus while the actor was allegedly undergoing treatment. That is if CBS and Warner Bros. would cover the rest. Those episodes are probably a lost cause now. (Two and a Half Men ended up producing 16 episodes this season, 8 short of its 24-episode order.)

As for Lorre, he is said to have been instrumental in securing pay for the Men crew members. He has history with a number of them and also employs them on his other CBS/WBTV shows, The Big Bang Theory and Mike & Molly.